Deepika was only choice for Rana: Director

Rajinikanth-starrer Rana doesn’t stop making news. Even as the mega star recuperates in Singapore, reports have emerged that Sonakshi Sinha — and not Deepika Padukone — was the first choice for KS Ravikumar’s big-budget directorial venture. Ravikumar isn’t amused with such talks. “Where do they come from? We didn’t even think of Sonakshi or chat with her about Rana,” says Ravikumar.

Sources close to Deepika too are surprised with the emergence of such reports. They say Deepika was offered Rana as well as Kamal Hassan’s Vishwaroopam at the same time. But she was in a dilemma about her availability for both projects, as both films were huge and required her to do a lot of action. Ask Deepika about Vishwaroopam and she answers diplomatically: “I don’t like talking about projects I haven’t signed on. Also there’s no point discussing those films I could not do for various reasons since it would be disrespectful (to the makers).”

Coming back to Rana, Ravikumar adds that Rajinikanth was keen on Deepika joining him the film. “We, including Rajni sir, are happy that Deepika is doing the film,” he says. “She is playing the lead. Other female actors will only have guest appearances.” In fact, Rajni waited for about a month for Deepika’s team to work out her dates to his. He generally prefers to shoot at one go, but decided to work over a period of six months to align his dates with hers. “I am really honoured that Rajni sir reworked his dates for me and I got a chance to be a part of such a huge project,” says Deepika.